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The cultural legacy of
wiesbadenThe nineteenth century’s society spa
LANDESHAUPTSTADT
www.wiesbaden.de
The cultural legacy of
wiesbadenThe nineteenth century’s society spa
wiesbaden - “Wiesbaden has done me a lot of good.“
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Carl Friedrich Zelter, 1815
Preface – Even today, Wiesbaden still fascinates its visitors. It is a city founded for
a reason that still holds good after more than two thousand years, and that has been the
cause of unprecedented, and at the time breathtaking, developments in the 19th century. It
was the combination of the healing waters, the climate and the scenery that caused Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe to state that Wiesbaden had done him “a lot of good”. For many
generations the people of Wiesbaden made the most of this opportunity. They pursued a con-
sistent urban development policy, keeping one object in view: to create a “beautiful city”, a
city of diversion and social exchange. By the time WWI broke out, the small spa town that
Wiesbaden had been in the year 1800, with its population of barely more than 2,000, had
become “the world’s spa”, a place like no other – a spa city numbering more than 100,000
inhabitants. The international appeal of the large spa towns, and their development into
places of communication first and foremost, were interrelated, and this was especially
true of Wiesbaden. The innovative Kurhaus building of 1810 quickly brought widespread
recognition, and within a hundred years a city had developed that was unblemished by
industrial facilities but always ready to adopt modern concepts of urban planning. It also
offered the opportunity to establish and cultivate social contacts beyond those permitted by
the conventions of life in the capital: the aristocracy and the aspiring middle class were
closer here than anywhere else. Even today Wiesbaden is overwhelmingly shaped by the
19th century both in its urban layout and its buildings; in many places the clientele of the
“luxury city”, the routes once strolled down by flâneur politicians and artists, can still be
traced. From our awareness of the city’s special status, the idea has taken shape over
recent years that Wiesbaden, the 19th century’s “global spa”, should apply for recognition
as a World Cultural Heritage site. This distinction would focus attention on our cultural
legacy as nothing else could, and with it on the international attitude and the principle of
peaceful communication that are inseparably bound up with it.
The Mayor, Helmut Müller
Page
Preface | The Mayor, Helmut Müller 7
History of the city: an overview | Hans-Jörg Czech 11
The society spa: Wiesbaden as the paradigm of a phenomenon | Thomas Weichel 23
Town planning and landscape design for the spa society | Martin Horsten 31
Architecture and garden art: Wiesbaden’s legacy in the 19th and 20th centuries | Martin Horsten 43
Wiesbaden: residential city, capital city, spa city | Brigitte Streich 51
Town mapping as a contemporary witness | Erich Wieser 61
Continuity and change: the city of Wiesbaden today and tomorrow | Simone Zagrodnik & Martin Horsten 77
Zones, methods, and sources of research | Hans-Jörg Czech & Thomas Weichel 87
The authors 98
Publishing information 102
Contents
10 | 11
by Hans-Jörg Czech
History of the city:
an overview
Model of the large Roman thermae on Kranzplatz
History of the city: an overview 12 | 13
The monument of Gaius Valerius Crispus, c. 85 AD
Glass items discovered in the Wiesbaden thermae
As early as the Neolithic period, around 3000 BC, the emergence of hot
mineral springs in a climatically favoured hollow south of the Taunus hills had
attracted settlers to the area of today’s city of Wiesbaden. The geographical
location and the springs have remained essential features of the developing town
ever since.
In the first century BC, the Romans built an outpost fort on the eastern bank
of the Rhine. It served their garrison at Mainz, close to the region of the springs,
which was at the time inhabited by a tribe of the Germanic Chatti, the Mattiaci.
After the troops had been moved forward to the Limes early in the 2nd century,
the civilian settlement, by now thoroughly Romanised and known as “Aquae
Mattiacorum”, became the chief town of an administrative area east of the Rhine
(“Civitas Mattiacorum“). A flourishing provincial Roman town with mineral
springs that were widely known even in Classical times thanks to a mention in
Pliny’s Naturalis historia, it soon came to boast several thermal baths – a fact
confirmed by archaeological excavations.
The settlement survived both the advance of the Alemanni and the abandon-
ment of the Rhine border by the Romans in the 3rd to 5th centuries, and in Frankish
times it became the centre of the district of Königssondergau and the location of a
fortified royal manor. In 828/29 Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, first used
its new name of “Wisibada” (usually interpreted to mean “baths in the meadows”).
The Carolingian era also saw the building of the first church of St Mauritius in the
centre of the settlement’s old core. The adjoining castle precinct was further
strengthened by the building of a keep in the 9th/10th centuries. From the late
Middle Ages onwards, Wiesbaden was a minor residence belonging to the counts
of Nassau, and until the 13th century it even enjoyed a spell as an imperial city. By
the year 1370, no less than sixteen bathhouses were available to sufferers wishing
to benefit from the medicinal springs.
In 1507-1510, the south-eastern areas were enclosed within a city wall. Two
disastrous fires in 1547 and 1561 destroyed a large number of medieval buildings;
nevertheless the town recovered quickly, in part probably thanks to its many spa
visitors – only to be devastated again, and temporarily depopulated, in 1644 in the
course of the Thirty Years’ War. In balneological literature Wiesbaden had establi-
shed its place by the early 17th century, which furthered the upturn of its spa
business in the period that followed, despite a number of war-related setbacks.
From 1690 onwards the city walls were rebuilt, now enclosing the thermal springs
and bathhouses (“Sauerland”) too. All around the town, gardens and green spaces
Over many centuries the town’s geographical location and hot
springs have played a major part in shaping the development of
Wiesbaden.
Above: Plan of the city of Wiesbaden, 1843 Below: Plan of the city of Wiesbaden, c. 1855/60
History of the city: an overview 14 | 15
Matthäus Merian the Elder: View of Wiesbaden, 1655
of 5,000 to 6,000 spa visitors per year. However, urban
life was still concentrated in the space enclosed by the
city walls.
Things changed with the political upheaval of the
Napoleonic era and Nassau’s elevation to the rank of a
duchy in 1806. Almost overnight Wiesbaden became the
seat of even more administrative bodies, those of the
new state, and in 1816 it was chosen as the capital city
of Nassau.
were laid out with footpaths for the use of spa visitors.
When Prince Karl of Nassau-Usingen decided, in 1744,
to move the chief residence of the house of Nassau to his
new palace of Biebrich on the Rhine just outside of Wies-
baden, the decision was of some importance to the town
as numerous ministeries took up residence in the old
palace in the castle precinct. The spa business responded
instantaneously; several bathhouses and inns embarked
on conversions and renovations to cater for a new type of
spa visitor, expecting a different kind of service. The
growing demand for comfort and sophisticated enter-
tainment heralded the rise of the “society spa”.
Around the turn of the 18th/19th century, Wiesbaden
with its population of about 2,500 was the most popu-
lous town in the Nassau territory, catering for an average
Almost overnight, Wiesbaden became the seat
of numerous administrative bodies of the new
duchy of Nassau in 1806, and later its capital
city.
16 | 17
George Barnard: Social life at the rear of the Kurhaus, 1843
Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme
History of the city: an overview 18 | 19
View of Wilhelmstraße, 1896
Neues Kurhaus: the newspaper reading room, 1907
Wiesbaden’s new status as a political and administrative centre, together
with its favourable geographical location and long tradition as a spa town, pro-
vided the starting point for an unprecedented urban development over the course
of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The crucial part played by the “society spa”
in this process is illustrated by the first Kurhaus equipped with gambling rooms,
built 1808 -10 outside of the municipal border; with the surrounding green
spaces it provided the spa business with a new and prestigious centre. Very soon
large hotel and theatre buildings attached themselves to the new spa district. The
demolition of the city walls, completed in 1820, opened up the old town’s settle-
ment area in all directions, and provided the space needed for the young duchy’s
administrative buildings and barracks. Next came numerous prestigious municipal
buildings, schools and churches. In 1838/39 Wiesbaden was connected to the
railway network. The new town palace, built 1837-1843, was situated in the old
castle precinct. The Russian-Orthodox church on the slopes of Neroberg hill, the
burial place of the prematurely deceased wife of Duke Adolph of Nassau, bears
testimony to Wiesbaden’s close ties with the Russian Empire. The town expansion
was conducted methodically and in accordance with
the specifications drawn up by the duchy’s architects, Carl Florian Goetz, Chris-
tian Zais, and their successors. Aided by the inducements and tax privileges
offered to new residents by the authorities, they created the groundwork of
systematic growth, which continued – still on the basis of the Nassau architects’
specifications – even after the Prussian annexation of the duchy in 1866. Wies-
baden compensated for the loss of its status as a capital city by marketing itself
very successfully as “the world’s spa”; the regular visits by the Prussian-German
emperors, Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II, added to the glamour of social life at the spa
up to the year 1914.
Between 1800 and 1900, the population of Wiesbaden had doubled at a
fairly regular rate of about two decades each time, reaching 100,000 shortly after
1900. In the course of one century the compact spa town had become a spa city
of international renown, hosting about 200,000 visitors annually during the first
decade of the twentieth century.
The outbreak of WWI in 1914 was a turning point for Wiesbaden, signifying
as it did the decline of the upper-class spa culture with its large percentage of
international visitors. It took the city a long time to recover, especially in budge-
Wiesbaden compensated for the loss of its status as capital city of
the duchy of Nassau by marketing itself, with huge success, as
“the world’s spa”.
Thermal water taps at the Kochbrunnentempel
1. Salm-Quelle 2. Kochbrunnen 3. Spiegelquelle 4. Kranzquelle 5. Adlerquellen 6. Römerquelle 7. Pariser-Hof-Quelle - Gold.-Kreuz-Quelle 8. Sonnenberg-Quelle 9. Drei-Lilien-Quelle 10. Goldene Kette - Stern-Quelle 11. Bären-Quelle 12. Kölnischer-Hof-Quelle - Zwei-Böcke-Quelle 13. Gold-Brunnen-Quelle 14. Bäckerbrunnenquelle 15. Goldenes-Ross-Quelle 16. Quelle Häfnergasse 12 17. Quelle Goldgasse 1-3 18. Wilhelm-Heilanstalt-Quelle 19. Schützenhofquelle - Am Schützenhofbad 20. Gemeindebad-Quelle 21. Faulbrunnen 22. Schwarzer Bock Brunnen 23. Bäckerbrunnen-Zapfstelle
Thermal and mineral springs at Wiesbaden
History of the city: an overview 20 | 21
tary matters. Much of the infrastructure, developed specifically with a glamou-
rous social spa life in mind, lay idle; many of the hotels were converted into
military hospitals in the years that followed. Moreover, towards the end of the
war the traditional social order of Germany, like that of many other countries,
finally disintegrated; the aristocratic and upper middle class clientele that had
gathered in Wiesbaden every season was gone, either impoverished or killed in
action. The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that as a bridgehead to
Mainz, Wiesbaden remained under French occupation until 1926. The British
took over in 1926-28, making the city the headquarters of the British Army of the
Rhine. Through the incorporation into the municipal area of numerous surroun-
ding communities, both the population and the urban area grew considerably
during this period.
Attempts undertaken during the National Socialist era to revive the spa busi-
ness (“Volkskur”) were only temporarily successful, and soon snuffed out by
WWII. Moreover, the nation-wide repression fuelled by racial ideology and later,
in 1942, the deportation, along with other citizens, of almost all of the remaining
Jewish inhabitants of Wiesbaden, destroyed a centuries-old local Jewish spa and
bathing tradition. Several Allied air raids, the most severe occurring in February
1945, damaged parts of the city; however, they did not cause the loss of entire
neighbourhoods. The urban structure of Wiesbaden as it had developed since
1800, that outstanding example of methodical town planning resulting in the
19th- and early 20th-century spa city, was largely preserved along with
numerous individual historical monuments.
The city’s comparatively good state of preservation, and the infrastructure
surviving from the heyday of the society spa and Wiesbaden’s spell as the capital
city of Nassau, were part of the reason it was picked for the headquarters of the
U.S. Air Force Europe after the war. In 1945, Wiesbaden had also been chosen as
the capital of the new federal state of Hesse. In 1948/49 the Berlin airlift was
coordinated from here, a fact that created the foundations for a very close and
enduring German-American relationship in the city.
In the decades that followed, the trade fair and conference industry, as well
as the influx of service providers and federal agencies, steadily gained in impor-
tance next to the spa business. At present Wiesbaden is a city of around 276,000
inhabitants tending upwards, home to a university (Hochschule Rhein-Main) and
departments of the European Business School, and enjoying great popularity
with tourists from both Germany and abroad.
The U. S. Air Force’s Eagle Club in the Kurhaus, c. 1955
At present, Wiesbaden has a population of around 276,000, and
remains a popular destination for tourists from both Germany and
abroad.
22 | 23
by Thomas Weichel
The society spa –
Wiesbaden as the paradigm
of a phenomenon
resorts of the time. The attractiveness was reflected in
growing numbers of visitors – always with a high propor-
tion of foreigners whose religious needs were catered for
by the building of the Anglican Church and the Russian-
Orthodox Church. This was not only a burial church, but
was deliberately built at great expense at a prominent
position on Wiesbaden’s local mountain as a signal of
internationality.
The colourful social drama of the spa season is pro-
bably described nowhere more impressively than by
Dostoyevsky, who gambled his last money in Wiesbaden,
designed by Christian Zais and built around 1820, which
became the model for luxury hotels throughout Europe,
and gained a significance similar to that of the Gesell-
schaftshaus, also designed by Zais: as a building a pioneer
of its type and a meeting place for the wealthy classes
who were seeking mainly communication and entertain-
ment.
An important element of the amusement was gam-
bling, which Wiesbaden – as had happened in Baden-
Baden – soon put in the hands of a French casino tenant
whose job also included providing all of the entertain-
ment for the spa visitors. The analysis of the spa lists
shows how within just a few years Wiesbaden became a
leading spa resort that confirmed Goethe’s high estima-
tion of the city in the best possible way. The city became
one of those “Salons de l‘Europe”, as the international
spa expert Dominique Jarrassé called the exclusive spa
Diversions of the spa society: the pistol-shooting range c. 1900
Wiesbaden was not only highly attractive to
spa visitors – foreign investors also made a
contribution towards the rapid development of
the spa resort.
The society spa – Wiesbaden as the paradigm of a phenomenon 24 | 25
time and Wiesbaden seized the opportunity at a very
early stage. During the Napoleonic era, when Wiesbaden
became the capital of the duchy of Nassau, the construc-
tion of the “Gesellschaftshaus”, or assembly rooms,
brought a change in paradigm from the medieval healing
spa to the society spa of the 19th century. The building,
which only received the name “Kurhaus” later, did not
have spa facilities. It served exclusively social purposes.
Even its location, far away from the thermal springs, is
testament to its programme: the provision of rooms and
representative open spaces as a meeting point for the spa
society, for whom the thermal springs were often merely
a side show.
The chances offered by this trend were also recognised
at an early stage outside of Wiesbaden. The city began to
attract foreign capital, most of which went into building
hotels. The earliest example is the Hotel Vierjahreszeiten
The character of the spa town changed after the late
18th century. For a long time it was a case of “he who
sins, must go to a spa.“ In the post-Roman era, the search
for healing of diseases, which were often the result of an
unhealthy lifestyle, was the main reason for visiting a spa
resort, where the facilities usually offered little or nothing
in the way of luxury.
Already during the Ancien Régime, the town of Spa in
what is today Belgium was a meeting place of the Euro-
pean aristocracy, and gained a significance similar to
that of the English Bath, whose planned facilities are still
highly impressive. This trend was clearly perceived at the
The hall of the old Kurhaus, c. 1865
The “society spa”, seeing and being seen, was
more important in the fashionable spa of the
19th century than the health aspects.
Development of the tourist industry in selected spa towns, 1867-1914
The racecourse of Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, 1912
The society spa – Wiesbaden as the paradigm of a phenomenon 26 | 27
in his novel The Gambler. When the casino was closed down by Prussian legisla-
tion in 1872, this was by no means the end of Wiesbaden’s influential role in the
European spa sector – the “society spa” remained an engine of growth which
eventually turned the town into a city. We can see Wiesbaden in this period as a
“venue for international human exhibition”, as it is described in the play Das
goldene Kalb by the women’s rights activist Hedwig Dohm, which premiered in
the Boulevard Theatre in Berlin in 1879. The idea of Wiesbaden as a place of
social intercourse and “match-making” was so widespread that the author was
able to play with it in different ways. The spa as a social stage became the subject
matter on the stage of the theatre.
The “global spa” of Wiesbaden had long been independent of casino operation
and cleverly took advantage of a series of trends at the time. Alongside its inter-
national clientele, Wiesbaden was also increasingly attracting a socially broader,
German public, to which the regular visits of Emperor Wilhelm I and later Wil-
helm II made a significant contribution. Industrialisation and the growing pro-
sperity of society gave the advantaged middle classes the chance of visiting the
glamourous city of Wiesbaden themselves. The spa became the counterpoint to
an increasingly condensed working life. No longer an enclave of otherwise prohi-
bited gambling, but a protective space for the necessary relaxation which went
with the “healing programme”, the uncondensed rhythm of the cure. The society
spa reached its climax around the turn of the 20th century. This trend is indicated
by increasing numbers of spa visitors and new society buildings such as the the-
atre and the new Kurhaus. And new grand hotels such as the Nassauer Hof, the
Palast Hotel or the Hotel Rose provided not only the height of luxury, but also
created their own worlds of communication. Anyone could get an overview of
potentially interesting contacts in the “Badeblatt”, the spa bulletin, which listed
all newly arrived spa visitors .
The curtain came down on the stage of the “global spa” with the start of the
First World War. The concept of the spa resort for European guests and the Ger-
man middle classes as a social phenomenon was lost in the rush of nationalism
and the collective destruction of wealth.
Emperor Wilhelm I in front of the Wiesbaden Colonnades, c. 1880
The Wiesbaden Palast Hotel c. 1908
Around 1910 Wiesbaden was by far the spa resort with the most
visitors – a “spa metropolis” with over 100,000 inhabitants.
28 | 29
A bird’s-eye view of Wiesbaden, c. 1908 Panorama by Hans Lack
by Martin Horsten
30 | 31
Town planning
and landscape design
for the spa society
B i l d q u a l i t ä t
building of mansions designed for upper-class living on
the slope to the north of today’s Sonnenberger Straße.
In 1824-1827, the Palais von Hagen was built on
today’s Paulinenhang, to the north of the Kurhaus and
assembly rooms. Together with the Haus Bermbach, built
in its immediate vicinity on Cansteinberg, it initiated the
methodical construction of villas all around the Wiesbaden
town centre. It was, however, only after the town had
been connected to the railway network in 1839, and the
first railway station built, that the sunny Taunus
slopes were increasingly studded with “Landhäuser”, as
this type of residence was called until well into the 1860s
to describe its specific, supposedly rural characteristics.
In 1843 the dowager Duchess Pauline commissioned a
residence on the site of the demolished Palais von Hagen,
the first member of the ruling family normally resident in
Biebrich am Rhein to move to the new capital.
in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The choice of a
pentagonal shape, however, was a skilful and Wiesbaden-
specific decision reflecting the town’s topographical
situation at the foot of the Taunus slopes. It allowed the
reconciliation of Langgasse street, running in a curve
from the south-west to the north-east, with a grid of
perimeter blocks expanding uphill towards the north-
west – the area that was to become the Bergkirchen-
viertel neighbourhood. New streets were laid out ortho-
gonally. Residences were built for the officials of the
Nassau administration. To the east of the old centre, Zais
positioned the new Kursaal to serve as the social hub of
fashionable spa life. In this he also laid the foundation of
the gradual extension of the spa district with the Bowling
Green, colonnades and Kurpark.
With a view to the requirements of spa visitors and
future inhabitants of the town, hoped and expected to
belong to the affluent classes, Zais recommended the
The Historical Pentagon (aerial photograph, 2011)
Town planning and landscape design for the spa society 32 | 33
Villa and garden: prestigious upper-class living
Romantic landscape parks: the public paradise
Up to the present day it is the 19th century that shapes the appea-
rance of Wiesbaden. “Water – villas – green refuges“: the triad of
notions that determined its town-planning policy.
„Water – villas – green refuges“: these are the core ideas of a city which made
the social life centred on the 19th-century spa business, characterised by inter-
nationality, luxury and diversion, the guiding principle of its town-planning policy.
To the present day the cityscape is characterised by the numerous and diverse
monuments from that era. The achievements in town planning and garden art,
the vast number of fine buildings, the infrastructural facilities pertaining to
social life in a fashionable spa, many of them still evident even today, and not
least the remarkable degree of continuity in their use – all of them serve to make
Wiesbaden a 19th-century “urban monument” of outstanding and universal rank.
Town planning and urban building are inseparably linked with landscaping
and the art of the garden. The various functions of urban life were methodically
distributed to fit the unique topographical conditions. The starting point of urban
development was the area of mineral springs surrounding what is today’s Koch-
brunnenplatz square, right at the foot of the Taunus hills – already known for its
therapeutic properties by the Mattiaci, and later developed by the Romans. It was
not long before numerous bathing facilities and inns established themselves,
later followed by hotels offering their own spas, and service providers in the spa
business. For centuries the spa facilities were among the prime sources of income
for the slowly growing town, part of the county of Nassau, which had finally
reached a population of a little over 2,200 around the year 1800.
The elevation of Nassau to the rank of a duchy in 1806 initiated a process
of urban development that has remained unique among European spa towns.
Duke Friedrich August was well aware of the commercial relevance of the hot
springs and the health and spa business for the development of the town. He
commissioned Christian Zais to draw up plans for a town expansion that would
on the one hand reflect Wiesbaden’s new function as the young duchy’s capital
and seat of government, providing an appropriate setting, and on the other would
re-structure and beautify the town, enabling it to be developed into an interna-
tional spa and health resort.
In 1818, Zais submitted a comprehensive report and a plan. The core element
was the creation of a pentagon of streets to give structure to the irregular
medieval town, create a regular geometric layout and fill it in with newly
constructed buildings in a sober neo-Classical style. The introduction of a grid
system was a common element in early 19th-century town expansion plans, both
Kochbrunnen spring: the origin of the town
Warmer Damm in 1859/60. The central idea of his proposals for the urban deve-
lopment of the spa town and capital city was that of a picturesque overall design,
with public and private green spaces smoothly merging into each other and into
the surrounding agrarian and natural landscape. “The ensemble of all the villas’
gardens in itself gives the impression of one giant landscape park, with the man-
sions, like an overabundance of follies, serving to create an artfully arranged
landscape of villas.” (Russ, 1988). The main focus of Thelemann’s design was on
the eastern mansion districts, known as the “green neighbourhood” for its close
proximity to the spa district and the Warmer Damm park. Owners and residents
here were affluent, people of private means or entrepreneurs, military men and
the duchy’s court officials.
Building activity in the city was given an enormous boost by the economic
upturn after the 1870/71 war against France. By then, Nassau itself had been
incorporated into the state of Prussia (1866), and under Prussian administration
Wiesbaden quickly developed into a centre of social encounter in Europe. It was
only the stock market crash of 1873 that caused a temporary stagnation. A sta-
tutory basis to regulate both public and private construction came in the form of
the Prussian law on building lines, passed in 1875 to regulate lines of sight for
streets and buildings, the first of its kind.
The effect was a certain „urbanisation“ of the “villa” type of building, with
the plots of land narrowing, the front gardens decreasing in size, the main gar-
dens increasingly laid out at the rear. This altered their effect within the street.
The range of design choices in both form and building material was enormous. A
crucial element in the interplay of public space and private plot was provided by
the see-through fences of the private gardens. The picturesque effect created by
the merging of both remained the predominant design principle of the elegant
residential areas, just as Thelemann had intended.
To appreciate the significance of the “villa” building commissions for the
development of the city of Wiesbaden in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a look
at the statistics may be helpful. Around the year 1900, there were approximately
900 villas surrounding the city centre on the north-western, northern, north-
eastern, eastern and southern sides. Between 1900 and 1910, another 300 were
added, and even on the eve of WWI villas were built in the confident belief that
the German Empire would endure. Towards the end of its heyday, Wiesbaden
The “landscape of villas“
Private garden: the decorative fence
Kurpark
The picturesque effect created by the merging of public and private
green spaces remained the predominant design principle of the
elegant residential areas.
Town planning and landscape design for the spa society 34 | 35
The commitment of the Wiesbaden élite regarding the methodical conversion
of their town into a residential and spa town, and the determination – in part no
doubt inspired by commercial considerations – to increase its attractiveness as a
resort even further, is impressively demonstrated by the activities of the first
town beautification society (“Verein zur Verschönerung der Umgebung Wiesba-
dens”), founded in 1843. This association promoted the concept of designing the
city as a whole on the lines of a giant landscape park. To that end it submitted an
overall plan in 1844, inspired by the treatises on garden art by Prince Pückler-
Muskau. The legacy of the society’s activities is still visible all over the city; stri-
king examples are provided by the individually designed shelters in the woods,
the viewing towers and numerous other elements opening up the surrounding
countryside for the use of visitors.
Earlier still, the duke’s conservational provisions regarding the maintenance
and accessibility of the ruin of Sonnenberg Castle to the north-west of the spa
district had been drawn up with the tourism aspect in view. A commission was
appointed specifically to care for the promenade leading from the Kurhaus to the
castle along the Rambach stream, and the castle itself. With the gradual enlar-
gement of the spa facilities, a long, narrow landscape park was created, romantic
in style and flanked by villas on both sides. A visit to the medieval ruin of Sonnen-
berg became an indispensable part of the Wiesbaden spa visitor’s schedule, and
innumerable depictions of the picturesquely situated ruin, deliberately reminis-
cent of the “Romantic Rhine” concept, went out into the world by mail.
Further attractive destinations in the vicinity were provided by the gazebo
on Neroberg hill and especially by the Russian Church, built 1847-1855 from plans
by Philipp Hoffmann to serve as burial place for the prematurely deceased Duchess
Elisabeth, who had been of Russian ancestry. Known as the “Greek Chapel” by the
locals, the structure with its striking golden onion domes against a background of
dark green fir trees appears to be the terminal point of the avenue leading from
the residential palace at Biebrich to Wiesbaden, and became a landmark of the
town in its own right.
In 1862 Carl Friedrich Thelemann, garden director to the house of Nassau
since 1846, presented the “General-Plan der Stadt und Umgebung Wiesbaden“
drawn up at the behest of the duke. Thelemann had been responsible for the
redesigning of the Kurpark in 1855/56, and the laying out of the public park of
The Russian Church on Neroberg
Gazebo on Neroberg
Over the course of the 19th century, Wiesbaden was transformed
into a glamourous residential and spa town. The aim was to make
the town in its entirety appear like a vast landscape park. William Tombleson, „Ruins of Sonnenberg“, c. 1840
37
Der Gartenarchitekt als Stadtplaner: Carl Friedrich Thelemanns Generalplan der Stadt und Umgebung von Wiesbaden, 1862
36 | 37
Die touristische Erschließung der „Kurlandschaft“, Waldwegekarte von 1905
The Protestant Marktkirche
finally granted its own planning sovereignty in 1860.
Alexander Fach, from 1863 to 1873 the first “Stadtbau-
meister“ (planning and building director), submitted an
expansion and development plan immediately after the
victory over France in 1871. It promoted the creation of
a generously proportioned ring road; this, however, was
not embarked on until 1894. In the years that followed,
the “Ring” – which ultimately was never completed –
was to become a particularly prominent part of the urban
structure.
From the 1880s onwards the town was distinguished,
as it were, by constant building on a very large scale.
Population had, once again, almost doubled in the past
26 years; it was now at 50,283. As well as a large number
of residential buildings in the town expansion areas,
some of which had been planned to include front gar-
dens, numerous prestigious public buildings (theatre,
of closed perimeter blocks. They extended towards the
south and south-west into the plain between the Taunus
hills and the Rhine, and the gentle lower slopes of the
foothills. From the 1860s onwards a new district develo-
ped in the Wellritzstraße and Bleichstraße area to the
west of the Pentagon; today it is known as Inneres West-
end. Those who came to live here were mostly artisans,
drawn by the financial incentives on offer. A densely
built-up area developed, characterised by rear houses,
workshops, and tenement flats.
After a long and tenacious struggle, Wiesbaden was
The built-up area of Wiesbaden was enlarged
by a grid of closed perimeter blocks to provide
living space for the spa society’s service pro-
viders.
The „villa landscape“ of Wiesbaden from the south-east, c. 1900
Town planning and landscape design for the spa society 38 | 39
church in the vicinity of the Warmer Damm enhanced
the townscape and served the requirements of locals and
spa visitors alike.
The spa business expanded even more swiftly once
Wiesbaden had been connected to the railway network.
The numbers of both locals and visitors rose rapidly. In
1840, 11,648 inhabitants were registered; in 1864 there
were 26,600. To create urgently needed housing space,
expansion measures were needed at fairly short intervals.
Housing construction thus became one of the chief tasks
of town planning.
Tha Nassau building official Karl Boos, a disciple of
Friedrich Weinbrenner at Karlsruhe, had submitted a
general plan for the development of the town of Wiesba-
den in 1856. The expansion of the built-up area for the
creation of housing space, intended chiefly for those
employed in the spa business, was carried out in the shape
boasted approximately 1,300 villas, their plots occupying
about 50 % of the built-up urban area.
While affluent visitors and locals built their resi-
dences in the sprawling, newly developed and often
highly speculative mansion districts, urban development
in the centre continued apace. As part of the town’s
transformation into a capital, a new town palace was
built in 1837-1841 from plans by Georg Moller. Prestigious
places of worship such as the Protestant Marktkirche, the
Catholic Bonifatiuskirche on Luisenplatz and the Anglican
The 1875 Prussian law on building lines
brought with it a certain “urbanisation” of the
“villa” type of building. In its heyday, Wies-
baden boasted approximately 1,300 villas.
and private front gardens. It was in Genzmer’s time that the parks in Nerotal
(1897/98) and Dambachtal (1898/99) were created.
In architectural matters, Genzmer propagated the unity of form and function,
and opposed an arbitrary, purely decorative use of “historicist” styles. With his
demands for an authentic use of building materials, and his attention to matters
of architectural colour in particular, he was very much in line with contemporary
discussions on architecture. Of his own architectural work in the city, one of the
most notable examples is the 1901/02 foyer of the court theatre (today Staats-
theater), of which only the interior remains. It was built to provide an appropriate
setting for the May festival of music cherished by the German imperial family.
Two imposing schools, Gutenbergschule and Blücherschule, and the mock-
Roman Römertor serve as landmarks within the cityscape. Genzmer’s abattoir
building at the southern entrance to the city, next to the railway station, was
designed with the aesthetic demands of spa and court society in mind. It has
since been demolished with the sole exception of its water tower.
For the development of the cityscape as it presents itself to the eye today,
Felix Genzmer was without doubt among the most notable architects and town
planners to have worked here. Next to him, Christian Zais must be mentioned
who created the guidelines and laid the foundation for the “ordered” 19th-
century town (the Pentagon and the concept of the mansion districts) as must
Alexander Fach (Ringstraße). In 1903 Genzmer was appointed full professor of
Technische Hochschule of Berlin-Charlottenburg. As Sigrid Russ has justly
observed in 1988, it was Genzmer who perfected the image of Wiesbaden in the
spirit of the 19th century – and very much in the service of the force that drove
the city’s development, the fashionable spa business.
Staatstheater and colonnades
Nerobergbahn cable car
Town planning and landscape design for the spa society 40 | 41
railway station, town hall) sprang up. Notable architects were at work, among
them Georg Hauberrisser, Fritz Klingholz and the firm of Fellner & Helmer. Fried-
rich von Thiersch designed the new Kurhaus, Johannes Otzen built the Bergkir-
che, his first Predigerkirche (“Dominican” church) with a cruciform central plan,
and later developed the “Wiesbaden Programme” exemplified in the Ringkirche;
it was to lead the way in Protestant church architecture. The same principles
were observed by Friedrich Pützer in his Lutherkirche, built to the west of the new
central station to provide a point de vue for the Oranienstraße axis.
In the decades around 1900, 26 brickworks were in operation in and around
Wiesbaden; remains of only two of them have survived today. A rough estimate
suggests that between 1871 and 1910, approximately four billion bricks were
produced there to supply the numerous building sites in the city. These numbers
alone bring home the gigantic logistical feat achieved during that time. For
decades on end, and with business in full swing, Wiesbaden resembled a construc-
tion site. It nevertheless became the meeting place of European society during
those same years. Between 1880 and 1905, its population doubled once again,
finally crossing the threshold of 100,000. Wiesbaden was now officially “Groß-
stadt” – a spa city.
The last innovative contribution to the city’s urban develpment in the waning
years of the 19th century was made by Felix Genzmer, building director of Wies-
baden since 1894. Genzmer considered the chief task of modern city planning to
be the solution of urban-constructional and hygienic problems. At the same time,
he was a proponent of artistic, or picturesque, town planning as propagated by
Camillo Sitte in his survey on the principles of urban planning („Der Städtebau
nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen“), published in 1899. In accordance with
these guidelines, streets were laid out not invariably at right angles; curves and
open squares were introduced to render urban space more varied and attractive.
Closed rows of buildings were utilised to create squares and other spaces of
differing character but invariably considerable quality.
Genzmer also initiated the „furnishing“ of streets, squares and parks with
picturesque small structures – kiosks, pavilions, but also, among other items,
embellished gas distribution boxes. He caused pavements to be ornamented with
elaborate mosaic in multicoloured small stones, but he also continued the policy,
so vital to the green cityscape, of visually merging the avenue-like street spaces
Prestigious tenement flats: Adelheidstraße
Römertor gate in the so-called Heidenmauer
Around 1900, Wiesbaden resembled a huge construction site. At
the same time, however, it enjoyed its heyday as a stage for the
sophisticated “spa society”.
42 | 43
Architecture and garden art:
Wiesbaden’s legacy in the
19th and 20th centuries
by Martin Horsten
tection, „Stadtgestalt und Denkmalschutz im Städtebau“.
The rediscovery of „Gründerzeit” (i.e. late 19th-century)
architecture, long vilified by art historical research and a
monument protection practice dominated by art history,
caused the focus of monument protection to shift
towards the architectural heritage of the 19th century.
The city of Wiesbaden acted as a trailblazer for the rest
of Germany in its efforts to maintain and restore its large
stock of old buildings. One of its early key projects at the
time was the renovation, carried out in strict accordance
with restoration principles, of the Villa Clementine next
to Warmer Damm, today one of the few villas that are
municipal property, and thus open to the public.
the aesthetic value of the stock of old buildings, and their
capability of being adapted to changing requirements.
After fierce opposition from the population, and students
especially, the project was finally abandoned. Opposition
to the heedless destruction of the old urban structures
grew in other cities too. The year 1975 was finally
declared “European Architectural Heritage Year” by the
Council of Europe; in Germany, it is usually referred to, in
a somewhat narrower definition of the term, as „Europä-
isches Denkmalschutzjahr“ – European Monument Pro-
tection Year. It was under one of the leaders of the Wies-
baden anti-demolition activists, the Social Democrat,
lawyer and head of the Department of Urban Develop-
ment, Jörg Jordan, that shortly after 1975 a fundamental
change of direction took place.
The city’s efforts were rewarded in 1978, in the context of a
federal competition on townscapes and monument pro-
Villa Clementine
In the reappraisal of 19th-century architec-
ture, Wiesbaden played a leading part.
Architecture and garden art 44 | 45
City map from the „Kurprospekt“ (spa brochure) of 1925 (detail)
making planning decisions on the further development of
the town.
The city in itself is a magnificent mise-en-scène, a
stage for 19th-century social life. The architecture of
that time, in German-speaking countries frequently (but
sometimes controversially) referred to as “Historicism”
due to its reliance on historical styles, had few advocates
in the mid-20th century. As late as 1963 the town
planner Ernst May called for large-scale demolition of
the obsolete mansion districts and densely built up peri-
meter blocks in his publication, „Das Neue Wiesbaden“.
The demolition of the the characteristic old buildings was
in fact embarked upon, and rows of new housing inter-
spersed with green spaces were built.
Although May was chiefly concerned with unsatis-
factory living conditions in the old, densely built up and
hygienically problematic structures, he clearly misjudged
Wiesbaden is one among only a few German towns
and cities that survived the devastations of WWII with
comparatively little damage. By international standards,
too, Wiesbaden is an outstanding heritage area with
regard to the number and value of surviving historical
layout features and buildings. Among the fashionable
resorts of the 19th century, Wiesbaden is the only one
that accomplished its development into a modern city
without losing its identity as a spa. Dukes of Nassau,
Prussian élites, mayors and building directors, entrepre-
neurs and spa directors – all of them always kept the spa
business as the chief economic factor in mind when
Among the fashionable resorts of the 19th
century, Wiesbaden is alone in having accom-
plished its development into a modern city
without losing its identity as a spa.
Superimposition of an aerial photograph of 2011 and the protected area according to the Monument Protection Act
46 | 47
Map of 1910, from the „Spielmann-Atlas“
The Solmsschlösschen in Alwinenstraße
Architecture and garden art 48 | 49
When the State of Hesse’s Monument Protection Act was passed in 1974, a
modern legal basis for the systematic registration of the stock of monuments had
been established, and with it a foundation for their protection and maintenance.
The Hessian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments headed by
its director of many years, Gottfried Kiesow, first initiated a review of the villa
districts so crucial to the appearance of Wiesbaden, in order to take stock of the
surviving buildings and assess their suitability for monument status.
In 1988, the much-noticed topographical book edited by Sigrid Russ, „Wies-
baden, Band II – Die Villengebiete“, was published. In 2005, the same author
published her three-part Vol. I of the topographical book of monuments, covering
the Pentagon and the town expansions both within and outside the Ring.
An examination of both topographical works together, and their comparison
with the building stock of Wiesbaden around the year 1900, will demonstrate
that the city in its dimensions of that time can still be experienced almost in its
entirety, due to the surviving buildings, the preserved urban structures and the
green spaces. About 90% of the built-up area of 1900 (compare the Spielmann/
Krake plan of 1912) has been designated as a Gesamtanlage (ensemble) and thus
a Flächendenkmal (“area monument”) in accordance with the criteria set by the
Hessian state’s Monument Protection Act (compare the depiction of the entire
ensemble, 2011). Of the approximately 1,300 villas built before WWI, an esti-
mated 900 are still standing (exact numbers are not yet available at this time).
The Wiesbaden list of monuments contains about 5,500 entries for the urban
area alone (excluding the suburbs later incorporated into the municipal area),
mostly buildings dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. About 1,800 of
these buildings have individually been given the status of historical monuments
due to their excellent state of preservation, in some cases also due to their
preserved interior décor.
Wilhelmstraße: the city’s showpiece street
The city of Wiesbaden, in its 1910 dimensions, is today heritage-
protected almost in its entirety, one of the largest protected areas
in existence.
50 | 51
Wiesbaden:
residential city,
capital city, spa city
by Brigitte Streich
leg, is reported to have visited Wiesbaden no less than six times.
After the decline of the spa and bathing business in the wake of the Thirty
Years’ War, a new upturn set in around 1700, again promoted by the territorial
rulers. From 1690 onwards they did their best to modernise the town and heigh-
ten its attractiveness to visitors. The Kranzplatz square was created to provide a
new centre for the spa district; the Herrengarten park and leafy promenades
invited visitors to stroll. The entertainment programme was enriched by an enti-
rely new feature in 1765: from that year on, travelling theatres were engaged on
a regular basis to perform popular comedies for the enjoyment of both locals and
visitors. In 1771 the authorities legalised the game of hazard, creating yet
another attraction. A large number of regulations was issued to ensure peace and
privacy for the ever-growing number of spa visitors, in order to make their stay
more agreeable. With the aid of these and other measures, Wiesbaden succeeded
in creating and cultivating a reputation throughout Europe, as a pleasant and
sophisticated luxury resort.
The events of the year 1806 heralded a still-faster development of the spa
town towards a “global spa city”. When the ruling princes of Nassau-Usingen and
Nassau-Weilburg both joined the Confederation of the Rhine, their territories
were declared a “united, indivisible and sovereign duchy”. The territorial defini-
tion and unification of the new state, and the coordination of a large number of
spa towns under a common sovereignty, provided a starting point for a more
efficient organisation of the spa business in the era of the dukes of Nassau. At
Wiesbaden the mineral springs remained largely in private ownership, but the
town benefited from state funding nevertheless. The prestigious new assembly
rooms (“Cursaal”) built 1808-10 provide impressive proof of the fact. The plot of
land had been supplied by the ruling family, and it was them, too, who provided
for the expansion of the green spaces and promenades. In the vicinity of the new
Kurhaus, a second spa district developed at some distance from the mineral
springs. It catered primarily for the social life and diversion of the spa visitors. The
Kurpark, the Bowling Green and later the colonnades built to flank it, the building
of the ducal court theatre in 1827 and the laying out of the imposing Wilhelm-
straße were some of the more notable features. However, the town made sure
that the springs and their immediate surroundings were provided with their
share of amenities and a prestigious appearance too, as shown by the measures
taken for the beautification of Kochbrunnenplatz.
The founding of the duchy of Nassau in 1806 marked the begin-
ning of Wiesbaden’s rise to the status of “the world’s spa”.
The “Cursaal“, c. 1830
Wiesbaden: residential city, capital city, spa city 52 | 53
Usingen were relocated to the small spa town, situated
not far from Biebrich on the slopes of the Taunus hills.
With this move, the first step towards its later function
as a capital was made.
The counts, princes and finally dukes of Nassau pro-
moted Wiesbaden not merely as their capital but also
and primarily as a spa town. .Already in the 15th and
16th centuries, the town enjoyed an early heyday as a
late medieval “fashion“ spa. King Albrecht I, Emperor
Friedrich III and his son, Maximilian I, and numerous
other members of the high nobility visited the town.
Friedrich III of Habsburg, wo suffered from a gangrenous
Wiesbaden is a city of many faces: spa and health
resort, residential town and capital of Nassau, city, the
capital of Hesse. The beginnings of the later residential
city are to be found in the second half of the 13th century,
the time when Wiesbaden became the property of the
counts of Nassau. Although their castle in the precincts
of the old royal manor was elaborately restored at the
end of the 17th century, there was no corresponding
phase as a courtly centre for Wiesbaden in those years. It
was only after the residence had been moved from
Usingen to the banks of the Rhine in 1744 that the town
began to profit from the proximity of the court of
Nassau. The ruling family decided on the palace of Bieb-
rich, which had been enlarged into a stately three-wing
structure close to the river, as their new seat. It was to be
an important decision for the political future of Wies-
baden when major administrative bodies of Nassau-
View of Wiesbaden, c. 1815
Already in the 15th and 16th centuries, the
town enjoyed an early heyday as a late medie-
val “fashion“ spa.
The Erbprinzenpalais on Wilhelmstraße
Nassau administration. The military band contributed to
the musical entertainment of spa visitors and local
society. The newly formed corporative chamber took its
seat at Wiesbaden too, and the state’s upper appellate
court was moved to the new capital from Hadamar.
Within a very short time the townscape had changed
beyond recognition, with the ducal building authorities
exerting as much influence as possible during this pro-
cess. From 1803 onwards, plots on Friedrichstraße had
been marked out for court officials; in the street laid out
to the west of the source region, originally Spitalstraße
but renamed Nerostraße in 1811, plainer single-storey
buildings went up for artisans and the petit bourgeois.
The ducal residence itself began to extend into the
capital as well. From 1813 to 1817, the Erbprinzenpalais
was built on Wilhelmstraße for the court of the duchy’s
hereditary prince, Wilhelm. The prince never actually
At the same time the expansion of Wiesbaden into
the capital city of the young duchy continued apace.
Between 1838 and 1842, the imposing structure of the
State Ministry went up in Luisenstraße; today the buil-
ding houses the Ministry of Justice. The newly constructed
Mint and the Pädagogium (grammar school) on Luisen-
platz, and a number of additional buildings intended for
use by various Nassau government agencies, were like-
wise part of the sovereign’s rebuilding of Wiesbaden as
an administrative centre. With the construction of the
infantry barracks on Schwalbacher Straße in 1816/18,
and the artillery barracks on the corner of Rheinstraße
and Schwalbacher Straße in 1828/29, the upper ranks of
the military gained in importance as a privileged seg-
ment of the population. From this time on the military
came to be an indispensable element of social life at
Wiesbaden, as were the higher-ranking officials of the
The Kochbrunnenplatz in 1903
Wiesbaden: residential city, capital city, spa city 54 | 55
with a vivarium and a refreshments kiosk in 1815, and the hunting lodge of Platte,
built in 1826 on a ridge of the Taunus hills overlooking Wiesbaden. They provided
delightfully situated destinations for a day’s outing, adding to the spa’s charms.
Other locations that recommended themselves for a walk or a promenade were
Neroberg, Nerotal and Geisberg hill.
The close connection between the “official” residence and capital of Wiesba-
den, and the court at Biebrich Palace, was emphasized by the building of the
stately Biebricher Chaussee, today’s Biebricher Allee. It is also the main traffic
connection between the city and the Rhine. The State Monument, the premises
of the Henkell sparkling wine company, and the viewing/water tower on Adolfs-
höhe hill provide its architectural landmarks. The open view towards Biebrich
Palace was the deciding factor in choosing the site for the Russian Church on
Neroberg hill. Built as a burial place for Elisabeth, Duke Adolf of Nassau’s prema-
turely deceased duchess, who had been of Russian descent, it quickly became one
of the town’s most visited sights as well as a landmark visible from miles away.
To the present day the church, along with the Russian-Orthodox cemetery near-
by, serves as a reminder of the close and long-standing connections between
Wiesbaden and Russia.
Reforms in social and commercial policies as well as Nassau’s joining of the
Zollverein (customs union) in 1836 contributed to an economic upturn and
consequently to growing prosperity in the capital. The political successes of the
“model state” of Nassau, and the ever-growing attraction of its spa business,
proved mutually beneficial. The transport infrastructure was improved, which in
turn furthered the dynamics of urban development. An avenue providing a direct
connection to Frankfurt was built. In 1827/36, Biebrich became a stopping place
of the Cologne and Düsseldorf steamship companies. In the spring of 1840, the
first train went to Frankfurt from Wiesbaden. Technical innovation was at work
within the town as well: gaslight illuminated the streets from 1847 onwards, and
in the autumn of 1854 a telegraph line was built via Wiesbaden to Koblenz.
After its defeat on the side of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War, the duchy
of Nassau was annexed by troops of the kingdom of Prussia in 1866. Wiesbaden
lost its status as residential and capital city, although it did remain an important
administrative centre as the seat of the new Prussian regional authority, the
Regierungspräsidium. Neither the prosperity nor the appeal of the town suffered
in the least, not even as a consequence of the long-dreaded ban on gambling
halls that finally came into force in 1872: the spa tax, also introduced in 1872,
Nerotal, Kaltwasserheilanstalt
The State Monument on Biebricher Allee
The palace of Biebrich, garden side
The political success of the “model state“ of Nassau and the ever-
growing attraction of its spa were mutually beneficial.
Wiesbaden: residential city, capital city, spa city 56 | 57
The town palace served as the winter residence of
the dukes of Nassau, and in this function provided the
spa town’s social highlights. Non-aristocratic members
of the upper classes were admitted to the balls and
soirées hosted by the Nassau court during the winter
months. In 1857 the Kursaal provided the magnificently
decorated setting for the nuptials of Prince Oskar II of
Sweden (1829-1907) with Sophia of Nassau (1836-
1913). The small palace known as Paulinenschlösschen,
the dower house of the Duchess Pauline, served as a
glamourous cultural meeting place during the Nassau
years; in Wilhelmine times it was used as a temporary
Kurhaus while the new Kurhaus was under construction
(1904-1907).
Structures created in the town’s vicinity on the initia-
tive of the ruling family included the 1744 pheasantry,
the park of which was converted into a landscape garden
lived there, residing instead in his palace at Biebrich on
the Rhine as his predecessor had done. Instead he “ceded
his palace to the Muses”, as a travel account put it. In 1821,
a public library was established here; a few years later,
the collections of the Nassauischer Altertumsverein (i.e.
the society of antiquaries) also found a home in the buil-
ding. The social hub for the arictocracy, the officers and
the upper middle class came to be the new town palace,
built on the site of the old castle and incorporating
several middle-class houses into its structure – because,
as a Frankfurt newspaper put it, “our capital of Wiesbaden
is to be the residential city of the ducal court as well”.
The palace of Biebrich, on the other hand, served primarily
as a retreat for the ducal family’s “private” life – and for
the reception of guests of outstanding rank, such as the
Austrian emperor, Franz Joseph, who was received there
with much pomp and circumstance in August, 1863.
View towards Wilhelmstraße with the Hotel Vierjahreszeiten
and 1885, 10,814 individuals with an income of 13.3 mil-
lion marks moved to Wiesbaden. In 1905, just a hundred
years after the methodic development of the town had
been embarked on, the population figure passed the
100,000 mark for the first time. Consequently Wiesbaden
was now not just a global spa, but a spa city too. Alone
among the spas of Europe it has since managed to
maintain this balance without losing its cherished image:
Wiesbaden, the affluent green spa between the Taunus
hills and the Rhine, which it has remained to the present
day.
composed and performed here; the Jewish feminist
Fanny Lewald came for her health, together with her
lover; in 1846 the Munich painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach
took the opportunity to observe the spa visitors.
Ever since Emperor Wilhelm II had discovered the
town for himself and his retinue, the number of million-
naires settling at Wiesbaden had been on the rise. The
influx of affluent new inhabitants brought additional
wealth to the town, strengthening its finances and pro-
ving highly beneficial for its business life. Building acti-
vity, as it were, went through the roof. In the 1880s the
drinking water supply was modernised; in 1888 the first
steam-powered tram was on its way; from 1896 Wiesba-
den, too, had its own electric tram system.
The property market produced huge turnovers, rea-
ching14.5 million marks as early as 1872. Between 1879
Empress “Sisi“ of Austria
and central station. Both rulers intervened in various
ways in the shaping of the spa town and its social life.
In 1852, Wiesbaden referred to itself for the first time
as “Weltkurstadt” – the world’s spa. And in fact the world
did meet at Wiesbaden, “every travelling European’s con-
versation room” as the newspaper Rheinischer Kurier put
in on 23rd August, 1878. Members of the European
ruling houses, like the Russian tsar Nikolaus II and
Empress “Sisi” of Austria, came and went at the spa town.
Writers such as Honoré de Balzac, Friedrich von
Bodenstedt, Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky, Ivan Bunin and the
largely forgotten August Theodor von Grimm stayed at
Wiesbaden, sometimes for months at a time. Gustav
Freytag, among the most widely-read authors of his time,
lived in his Wiesbaden villa for many years. Johannes
Brahms, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky
provided financial compensation. The visits by the new
rulers from Berlin, invariably punctuated by magnifi-
cently staged public appearances, proved a new and
considerable crowd puller.
The town palace acquired a new function as the
seasonal abode of the German emperors and their retinue.
The annual spring “Luftkur”, meetings with other ruling
families and, after 1896, visits to the May festivals of
music at the court theatre, an event specifically introduced
for the imperial family, brought Emperors Wilhelm I and
Wilhelm II back to Wiesbaden numerous times. Wilhelm
II in particular exerted his – usually indirect – influence
on the construction of the new court theatre, Kurhaus
Emperor Wilhelm II with his wife and daughter
Wiesbaden: residential city, capital city, spa city 58 | 59
Wiesbaden: “Every travelling European’s con-
versation room”.
Town mapping as a
contemporary witness
60 | 61
by Erich Wieser
Plan of the district of Wiesbaden, survey of 1701, occidented map
19th-century cartography was determined by the beginnings of territorial
triangulation and topographic surveying on the one hand, and the compilation of
land tax registers by the state on the other. The 1819 Wiesbaden sheet of the
Prussian land survey by Müffing depicts the large-scale topographic situation
with the setting of the still-young town between the Taunus hills and the Rhine.
However, it also shows the detailed topographical structures of the palace of
Biebrich and its gardens, as well as those of the old Wiesbaden Kurhaus and the
adjoining Kurpark. The basic structural features of the young town, with its
characteristic pentagonal shape, are already and distinctly present.
The oldest map in the Wiesbaden municipal archive’s collections depicts a
ground plan of the Wiesbaden communal district, dated October 1701, with the
distances between boundary stones given – a cartographic depiction that
belongs to the early years of the land tax register.
Detail of the map by Müffling, 1819
The beginnings of town mapping at Wiesbaden go back to the era of the
ambitious “global spa”. As a contemporary witness it documents, in various collec-
tions of maps drawn up by the Nassau, Prussian and municipal administrations,
the constant changes in the 19th-century town’s municipal area. It records shifts
in the development of urban building, in land use and in the expansion of infra-
structural facilities. Moreover, town maps were used for advertising purposes in
the 19th century too. Next to the official depiction of the actual map, the border
would be printed with illustrations and tourist-relevant information on public
amenities, squares, hotels or public baths. The lithography was contracted out to
publishing houses who worked for international travel agencies.
Current geo-information technologies facilitate the processing of historical
documents, allowing both a retrospective participation in 19th-century urban
development processes and comparison with today’s built-up areas.
Town mapping as a contemporary witness 62 | 63
The georeferencing of historical and recent sources of information
allows the superimposition of cartographic inventories from diffe-
rent eras in time, and thus comparison with today’s built-up areas.
„Abtauchen“, 1812, the Webergasse area
Town mapping as a contemporary witness 64 | 65
The merging of streams and the canalisation of the
water, and waste water, from the thermal springs led to
the construction of impressive feats of engineering. The
so-called „Abtauchen der Stadt Wiesbaden“ is probably
the oldest collection of municipal engineering maps there
is; drawn up in 1812 by the clerk of works, Weber, it
documents the various water pipes and drains.
The surveys of 1862-1870 provided highly accurate
cadastral plans documenting the designation of plots of
land, buildings and land use. The precision of the surveying
and mapping methods of the time allows for detailed
comparison with today’s situation regarding changes in
the outline of individual structures.
Detail contrasting the land registry situation in 1868 and 2012
66 | 67
The so-called Baldus Plan of the town of Wiesbaden, 1868
Town mapping as a contemporary witness 68 | 69
From the individual maps, the district surveyor, J. C.
Baldus, drew up an overall plan of the town which also
shows public buildings and bathhouses. From the plan it
is evident that the distinctive pentagonal shape was
already largely built up at the time. The generous and
picturesque “landscape of villas” characterising the
townscape to the present day, and the romantic land-
scape parks, are faithfully depicted in the plan. To the
west of Schwalbacher Straße the beginnings of a new
urban district are emerging. Originally drawn up in 1868,
the plan was later used for town-planning purposes: it
provided the basis for the development plan submitted in
1871 by Building Director Alexander Fach for the expan-
sion of the town.
Development plan for the expansion of the town of Wiesbaden, 1871
Town mapping as a contemporary witness 70 | 71
This development plan illustrates, on the one hand,
the focus on expanding the showpiece structures,
residential areas and landscape parks with added water
features; however, it also depicts a generously propor-
tioned “Ringstraße” to enclose the somewhat rigid grid
of blocks – changing the paradigm, as it were, and
designing a new outline for the town.
In 1912, Christian Spielmann published a summary
review of Wiesbaden town mapping, beginning in the
late 18th century, entitled „Die Entwicklung des Weich-
bildes der Stadt Wiesbaden seit dem Ende des 18. Jahr-
hunderts“. The so-called Spielmann-Krake-Atlas demon-
strates developments with the aid of twelve town maps
drawn up for the purpose, with a uniform layout, scale
and sheet line system. The newly drawn maps were based
in part on the earlier plans.
Current geo-information technologies facili-
tate the texturing of digital terrain models
using historical maps, allowing for a retro-
spective participation in the processes of
urban planning.
Superimposition of the 1871 development plan, and today’s development situation (in blue)
Town mapping as a contemporary witness 72 | 73
These days the use of modern geo-informa-tion technologies and geosensors supports historico-cultural analysis too. The coordinate-based location of historical and current sources of information enables the superimposition of cartographic inventories from different eras in history. Geo-information technology supplies new approaches for the multimedia cartogra-phic visualisation of spatial information, and provides a wide range of new tools suitable for research into urban history.
The “superimposing” visualisation of currentand historical maps, or the texturing of a digital terrain model with the aid of historical materials, create new insights into the phases of urban planning and development.
The superimposition of the current digital terrain model with historical maps demons-trates the adaptation of the Wiesbaden settle-ment and street patterns to the geomorpholo-gical structures of the urban area, with the mansion areas occupying the hillsides and the perimeter blocks concentrated in the plain, as well as the park landscapes so characteristic of the townscape clustering in the valleys.
Texturing of the 2006 digital terrain model using the 1868 plan of Wiesbaden
74 | 75
Continuity and change:
the city of Wiesbaden
today and tomorrow
76 | 77
by Simone Zagrodnik and Martin Horsten
have chosen to make their homes – just as they were in
the past. Already in the 19th century parts of those areas
were known as “Millionaires’ Hills”; in this respect, little
has changed. On the other hand, in the course of the last
decades many of the surviving villas have been converted
into offices or schools, kindergartens or cultural institu-
tions.
The immigrant share of the population is currently
at about 17 %; here, again, nothing fundamental has
changed at Wiesbaden over the last 150 years. During
the heyday of the spa business, artisans and domestic or
spa staff were mostly from “abroad” – at the time, from
neighbouring states such as Franconia and Bavaria,
Württemberg and Baden, from the Rhine territories or
from the east. Today the “multi-kulti” tradition is most
evident in the Westend district, where people from
Turkey and Greece, Syria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Lebanon
All residential areas share a smoothly functioning
infrastructure. All of them offer a wide range of shopping
opportunities, and are connected to the public transport
network. Citizens’ initiatives, clubs and societies, and
cultural organisations invite participation and involve-
ment. Urban life in the residential areas and the centre is
complemented by an excellent range of schools and
kindergarten choices, and by a wide variety of educa-
tional institutions.
A closer look at he distribution of groups within our
society across the urban area yields some remarkable
facts. Somewhat naturally, the mansion districts are still
those parts of the city where the affluent, or very affluent,
The 19th-century “millionnaires’ hills” are still
the areas favoured by the affluent.
appeal not least to its topographically attractive situation
between the Taunus hills and the Rhine, and its location
in the centre of both Germany and Europe. The proximity
of the international Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport, the
easy motorway access and excellent railway connections
all contribute to the popularity the capital of the federal
state of Hesse enjoys today with tourists and conference
attendees, locals and those who work in the city.
The lush greenery of the city and its vicinity, dating
back to 19th-century town planning, is still a characte-
ristic element of the cityscape. It pervades the extraordi-
narily popular residential and villa districts that have
grown over time in a ring surrounding the city centre,
and offers countless opportunities for walking, engaging
in numerous sports or quite simply for enjoyment – just
as it did a hundred years ago. It is not least the urban
climate that profits fom the generous green spaces.
And what about today? What is the face “the world’s
spa” presents to the world these days? Which parts of its
past are still present? Which of its traditions have sur-
vived? Which values prevail, and what are the opportu-
nities for the future that ensue from them? In the spirit
of UNESCO’s inter-cultural educational objectives, let us
take a closer look at these issues, bringing our little
publication on the cultural heritage of Wiesbaden to a
close.
With a population of around 276,000, today’s Wiesba-
den is a lively city in the heart of the economically
powerful Rhine-Main metropolitan region. The city has
remained popular as a place of residence, owing its
The Sternschnuppen-Markt – Wiesbaden’s Christmas market
Continuity and change: the city of Wiesbaden today and tomorrow 78 | 79
Wiesbaden: a lively green city situated in the
heart of both Germany and Europe
© press photo: Wolfgang Eckhardt
Foyer of Hessisches Staatstheater
and Poland pursue business and trade – in the city and for the city.
At Wiesbaden, internationality is a trait not exclusive to the “residents” –
those permanently settled here. Even in the 19th century, spa visitors from many
countries frequented the fashionable town at the foot of the Taunus. The excel-
lent quality of the medical care on offer and the wide range of social and cultural
diversions available, gambling not the least among them, attracted numerous
foreign visitors – predominantly from Russia, France, the Netherlands, Great
Britain and Ireland. Wiesbaden has maintained close connections with all of
these countries ever since.
The time of the traditional spa and bathing visits to Wiesbaden is past. Never-
theless the medical, and in fact the thermal, sectors have remained a part of life
in the city, and part of the attractions it offers too. The hot springs still ease
complaints, whether at the exclusive old Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme or the modern
thermal baths in Aukammtal. Hotels steeped in tradition use their own springs in
well-appointed spas. Renowned clinics have attracted patients from all over the
world who still travel to Wiesbaden for treatment. The numbers of visitors from
Russia and the Gulf states in particular have continued to rise in recent years.
Next to the United States and Great Britain these countries account for the
largest percentages of visitors to Wiesbaden.
City tourism, too, remains an important aspect of Wiesbaden’s economy. The
relevant numbers from the year 2011: just under 510,000 visitors arriving, more
than a million nights spent, with visitors from within Germany accounting for
slightly less than 80%. Wiesbaden offers 78 places to stay, and a total of close to
7,000 beds. Among the inns and hotels are renowned houses that offered their
services to guests as far back as the 19th century. One of them ist the „Hotel
Schwarzer Bock“, the origins of which go back to 1486, with its fine bathing
equipment, including some surviving historical originals.
A large number of globally active companies have decided on Wiesbaden as the
location of their German branches or headquarters, which adds to the city’s pre-
sent-day internationality – as do the locally resident but often internationally
active advertising agencies.
With its (for Germany) above-average percentage of businesses in the services
sector, among them a very high number of insurance companies, consultancy
firms, communications and media companies, Wiesbaden has developed into an
The weekly market in Wiesbaden
Guided tour of the city: On Kochbrunnenplatz
Continuity and change: the city of Wiesbaden today and tomorrow 80 | 81
International visitors appreciate the modern healthcare city of
Wiesbaden with its prestigious clinics and wide choice of treat-
ments.
important hub of the services industry. Just under 76 % of employees subject to
social security contributions are employed in the tertiary sector.
In 2006, a product inextricably linked with the history of fashionable living
at Wiesbaden celebrated its 150th anniversary: „Henkell Trocken“, probably the
best-known German brand of sparkling wine. As it was at the time, the fizzy
beverage still is an integral part of festive occasions and glamourous parties.
Grand social functions, events and celebrations have always been, and still are, a
characteristic part of the rich cultural programme on offer at Wiesbaden. For
example, today’s International May Festival organised by the Hessian State
Theatre was originally initiated, under the name of “Kaiserspiele”, by Emperor
Wilhelm II in 1896. It still manages to impress, year after year, with its magnifi-
cent programme. The annual international vintage car rally (Internationale Old-
timerrallye) brings back the flair of bygone days, and feeds the enthusiasm felt
by many, then and now, for motor sports. At the 19th-century “global spa”,
equestrianism was a much-practiced sport. The International Wiesbaden Horse
Show (Wiesbadener Pfingstturnier) is both a world-class event and a true crowd-
puller that upholds the tradition of fine horsemanship at Wiesbaden. Rheingau
Wine Week, a fair for local growers to present their wines and sparkling wines,
emphasizes Wiesbaden’s proximity to the Rheingau and its vineyards – a circum-
stance that has always had its effect on the town.
Social exchange and international togetherness have been practised at
Wiesbaden for a long time, and especially with Wiesbaden’s American long-stay
guests. The former Nassau, then Prussian garrison town of Wiesbaden became
the headquarters of the U.S. Army in Europe; in 2015, around 20,000 Americans
will be living in the Hesse capital. Another very old tradition of ours is that of a
conference and congress town. One outstanding example of this would be the
Internists’ Congress – held annually for almost 120 years now, it has its seat in
the city. And as it did a hundred years ago, the Kurhaus is still the centre of social
life in Wiesbaden.
To the present day the varied calendar of events and the city’s
rich cultural life are shaped by numerous traditional events.
Vintage Car Rally
View from the Bowling Green towards Nassauer Hof
Continuity and change: the city of Wiesbaden today and tomorrow 82 | 83
Gazebo on Neroberg hill
The Russian Church on Neroberg Biebrich Palace
Continuity and change: the city of Wiesbaden today and tomorrow 84 | 85
residence of the Nassau hereditary prince and in the 19th
century home of the important collection of Nassau
antiquities.
Wiesbaden, then, is very much aware of its rich cultu-
ral legacy, its manifold traditions, the merits of conti-
nuity. Everything of value that has survived from the past
is being used to shape the present. The success and qua-
lity of our heritage will provide the yardstick by which
future developments will be measured. To respect our
legacy, recognise and communicate its values, and make
good use of it in building an attractive future: that is the
aspiration and the challenge faced by the citizens of our
ever-changing city, the Wiesbaden of today and tomorrow.
Today it is in great demand as a venue for conven-
tions, conferences and exhibitions as well as for prestigi-
ous receptions or public and private celebrations. Many
of Wiesbaden’s historical buildings are still an inherent
part of the city’s social and cultural life. Among them are
the Marktkeller, the Villa Clementine, today the seat of
Wiesbaden’s Literaturhaus, and the magnificent premises
of the Casino Society.
Today’s politics, too, is decided in buildings steeped
in history. The former town palace of the dukes of Nassau
has become the seat of the state parliament, the
Hessischer Landtag. Business matters of a city shaped by
the services sector are handled in another fine old buil-
ding: Wiesbaden’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce
has its seat in the Erbprinzenpalais, once the town
Zones, methods,
and sources of research
by Hans-Jörg Czech and Thomas Weichel
86 | 87
Areas under examination (core zones)
Zones, methods, and sources of research 88 | 89
“spa city”, the social life of which made it increasingly
attractive to people of private means and pensioners,
who settled permanently at Wiesbaden.
According to these criteria, four zones can be identi-
fied that will have to be examined closely and rigorously.
Allowing for a certain degree of preliminarity regarding
their exact boundaries, they should be proposed as core
zones in accordance with the World Heritage guidelines.
Those urban areas already designated as ensembles
according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act, will
acquire the function of buffer zones.
The designated core zones are:
I. The Historical Pentagon
II. The spa and villa landscape
(Nerotal and eastern mansion district)
III. The Inneres Westend town expansion
IV. The Ringkirchenzone town expansion
Within these zones, detailed surveys of the approxi-
mately 2,500 individual structures have already been
carried out. The buildings’ ages and specifications have
been recorded and filed in a database; disfigurements
have been assessed. The data has then been integrated
into mappings of the zones created on the basis of geo-
information systems. This is required in order to obtain
an exact image of these urban areas, which will facilitate
the definition of core zones on the one hand, and on the
other will provide the basic material for the preparation
of the management plan required by UNESCO. The map-
ping of buildings’ ages has yielded important information
on the homogeneity of the areas in question. Establishing
buildings’ states of preservation facilitates statements on
the authenticity of the old building stock. The data on
disfigurements will be utilised in future concepts for
long-term urban repair.
The core area of what is today’s Wiesbaden had been
largely completed by 1914. The city expansions of later
years mostly conformed to the grid laid down by earlier
plans at first; it was only after WWII that major new
areas on the periphery were built on for the first time.
Until 1914, urban development had proceeded without
any incorporations of smaller communities, in marked
contrast to many other cities.
The air raids of WWII had caused damage in places,
but no large-scale destruction with the exception of the
Webergasse area. A number of buildings in the city centre
were destroyed, but the townscape as such survived. In
particular, the upper-class residential areas surrounding
the centre were spared almost in their entirety. The
destructive interference of the post-war years, too,
remained comparatively tolerable thanks to a committed
citizenry. The historical parts of the city were largely
spared the wholesale demolition of entire neighbour-
hoods originally envisaged by town planner Ernst May.
Within the “Historical Pentagon”, the booming economy
had repeatedly led to the demolition of individual buil-
dings even as early as the mid-19th century.
The city’s most homogeneous parts are the areas of
town expansion built in the later half of the 19th and the
early years of the 20th century, such as the Ring and the
“Inneres Westend” district. More recent, new-built struc-
tures here are usually due to WWII-related damage. The
identification of World Heritage zones will have to take
various aspects into account: the development of the city
in general, the function of individual districts, and their
state of preservation. It will be particularly important to
draw attention to the city’s unique status as a dynamic
The core area of what is today’s Wiesbaden
was complete by 1914, and has maintained
its structure to the present day.
I. Historical Pentagon
The „Historical Pentagon“ is the striking result of early 19th-century town
planning. This is the area which contains the nucleus of the historical town and
its subsequent development: the mineral springs, the bathhouses and hotels as
well as the town’s trade and business centre going back to Roman times. In the
Middle Ages at the latest, administrative functions came into play and in the
19th century, the dignity of the capital city of the newly founded duchy of Nassau.
Like those of most large cities, the centre of Wiesbaden is an area of perma-
nent upheaval. This was especially true during the 19th century, which saw
almost all of the buildings from the pre-1800 era replaced. Most of the buildings
from the early 19th century were in turn replaced by more prestigious new struc-
tures during the Wilhelmine years. The comparatively moderate amount of
destruction caused by WWII air raids was, once again, concentrated mostly on
the area surrounding the springs. The pressure for change exerted by the economic
upturn of the post-war era led to some interference with the historical building
stock. Nevertheless, it is still the buildings from every phase of the “global spa”
era that dominate the townscape of the Historical Pentagon.
II. Spa and villa landscape (Nerotal and eastern mansion district)
Wiesbaden is characterised by its large districts of mansions, or villas, the
first of which go back to the early years of the 19th century. They were part of a
deliberately planned urban development process. Often spa visitors would only
spend the summer season here, but more and more affluent people living on
private means moved in from all over the empire and even from abroad, and
settled permanently.
The residential areas are characterised by large detached villas, a great many
of which have survived to the present day. The Kurhaus, Kurpark and public park
of Warmer Damm are also part of the zone, as crucial amenities of the “society
spa”. Spa facilities, villa districts and the surrounding natural landscape were all
integrated into a single all-encompassing landscape park surrounding the core
city.
III. The Inneres Westend town expansion
The development of Wiesbaden into a “global spa” with a huge “spa
industry” would have been inconceivable without the parallel development of a
large services sector. This was located outside of the spa district proper in its own
areas (Bergkirchenviertel, Inneres Westend). As surveys so far have shown, both
the old building stock and the urban structures in these former working-class
neighbourhoods have largely survived. The Inneres Westend in particular is indi-
cative of the necessity felt at the time (the second half of the 19th century) of
Villa in Abeggstraße
The Marktplatz and Marktbrunnen
Zones, methods, and sources of research 90 | 91
Mapping of buildings’ ages in the area surrounding Ringkirche
archives hold large collections of historical photographs.
The images provide excellent material for a detailed stu-
dy of the development over time of the townscape und
the appearance and use history of individual buildings as
well as entire neighbourhoods. The public record office
alone holds around 100,000 historical photographs in its
multimedia archive, as well as early film recordings.
The capital of Hesse considers itself fortunate to
count the headquarters of quite a number of eminent,
long-established companies among its more than 18,000
local businesses. Some of their corporate histories go
back far into the 19th century, as in the cases of the re-
nowned producers of sparkling wine, Henkell and Söhn-
lein. The well-kept company archives provide yet more
sources of information on the history of the city, and very
specifically the society spa of the time.
listen” published at regular intervals and containing the
names of visitors then staying at the town. Then there
are the innumerable travel accounts, describing the
attractions of Wiesbaden over the course of several
centuries to various audiences both at home and abroad –
a type of publication still waiting for scholarly exami-
nation.
The international spa business provided exceedingly
fertile ground for the development of professional photo-
graphy at Wiesbaden. Numerous photographers’ salons
competed for permission to take visitors’ portraits. At the
same time, some photographers specialised in townscape
views, architectural and postcard photography quite
early on. Printed in large numbers, these images, too,
helped to advertise the town’s imposing sights in Germany
and abroad. Due to these circumstances the municipal
The headquarters of the producers of sparkling wine, Henkell, were built 1907–1909 on
Biebricher Allee from plans by Paul Bonatz.
providing additional space, in tandem with the fast-growing spa business, for the
spa society’s “service providers”.
IV. The Ringkirchenzone town expansion
Buildings in the area surrounding the Ringkirche are representative of the
urban development phase c. 1900, when Wiesbaden passed the “city” mark. The
neighbourhood with its closed perimeter blocks was the preferred residential
area of the professional and upper middle class, people who could not afford the
large houses in the mansion districts, or chose not to. The area is characterised
by a large percentage of well-kept historical buildings in a good (or excellent)
state of preservation, wich is also reflected in the extraordinary percentage of
listed monuments.
In addition to the built heritage, a very large stock of documents and objects
as well as numerous records of the immaterial cultural heritage have survived
from the heyday of the society spa in the pre-1914 years. This remarkable legacy
provides us with an uncommonly detailed insight into the processes of urban
development, including those that took place “behind the scenes”, as it were –
and particularly those connected with the many facets of the spa and bathing
business and the social life of the “global spa” of Wiesbaden in the 19th and
early 20th centuries.
Archival documents and photographs relating to the city’s history
The state archives (Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv) based in the capital of
Hesse, and the Wiesbaden public record office (Wiesbadener Stadtarchiv), both
store a wealth of documents and planning records relating to local political-
administrative history, as well as social and economical issues of the city and its
vicinity. They reflect, in great detail, the various administrative aspects, but also
the huge logistical and socio-political challenges brought about by Wiesbaden’s
rapid development culminating in the 19th and early 20th centuries’ “global spa”.
Other municipal archives house large stocks of files relating to Wiesbaden’s buil-
ding and civil engineering history, as well as early land registry documents provi-
ding in-depth information on the building and use history of numerous surviving
public and private structures.
The collection of books, more than 700,000 volumes today, held by the
Hessian state library (Hessische Landesbibliothek) in Wiesbaden goes back to the
18th century. It currently belongs to the Rhein-Main University and is entitled to
legal deposit copies of all publications on regional matters, and especially publi-
cations relating to Nassau. The collections contain important printed sources on
spa and society life at Wiesbaden during the 19th century, including the “Kur-
Ringkirche
Hesse State Library (Hessische Landesbibliothek)
Zones, methods, and sources of research 92 | 93
Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Christian-Zais-Saal
94 | 95
underline the value of Wiesbaden beyond the preserved stock of old buildings
and the unique layout of a “spa metropolis”: as an extraordinary place for protec-
ting and further exploring the cultural heritage that is the international society
spa of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The members of the Beautification Society during the inauguration of the Dahlheim-Hütte, 1908
Zones, methods, and sources of research 96 | 97
Villa Clementine
Dostojewski-Büste im Kurpark
Material and immaterial cultural heritage
As early as 1812, citizens’ involvement found expression in the Society for
Nassau Antiquity Studies (Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und
Geschichtsforschung). The society, which is still going strong today, aims to
preserve important and characteristic relics of the history of Wiesbaden and
Nassau. Its activities laid the foundation of the collection of Nassau antiquities
(„Sammlung Nassauische Altertümer“), which today contains more than 340,000
individual objects and is housed by the Wiesbadener Stadtmuseum. The items
date from every era of history, constituting an internationally renowned collec-
tion of valuable original pieces of all kinds; the collection of graphic works (maps,
townscapes and plans, portraits &c.) alone numbers 50,000 items. They represent
an extraordinary source for research, facilitating a detailed reconstruction of the
development of the Wiesbaden spa culture and the facets of social life in the
town, from Classical times to the 20th century, covering the entire range of
material manifestations.
Thanks in part to numerous cases of continuous use in the post-war years,
many pre-1914 interiors have also survived. Whether public property or privately
owned, today they are much in demand as carefully preserved settings for sophis-
ticated events, for habitation or for prestigious business premises. Like the pre-
mises of the Casino Society (1872-74), the Villa Clementine (1878-82, today the
Literaturhaus), or the Christian Zais Hall in the Kurhaus (1904-07), many of them
are largely authentic examples of the interior decoration of their time. They are
frequently-used settings for the highlights of modern social life, as well as popular
locations for international TV and movie productions. Cultural historians and
monument protection specialists appreciate the historical rooms as authentic
examples of the room arrangement, colour schemes and craftsmanship of their
time, examples moreover of extraordinary number and completeness.
In the course of the 19th century, numerous citizens’ associations were
actively working towards the goal of making Wiesbaden and its surroundings
ever more attractive to visitors. Their activities resulted in numerous contribu-
tions to the layout and design of public squares and parks; quite frequently they
can still be identified today. One notable result is the number and diversity of
shelters and monuments put up at suitable spots along the footpaths all around
the town; even today they are popular destinations for a day’s outing.
Finally, the incomparable atmosphere of the “the world’s spa” has found its
way into the work of numerous artists, some of them world-famous. The novel
The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866) and the “Wiesbaden Symphony” by
Johannes Brahms (op. 90, 1883) are two eminent examples. Works such as these,
as well as the large collections of source materials and objects mentioned above,
Thomas Weichel, (b. 1957) studied Early Modern history, sociology and politics
at Frankfurt, obtaining his Dr. phil. with Prof. Lothar Gall. Dissertation on „Die
Bürger von Wiesbaden. Von der Landstadt zur Weltkurstadt 1780-1914“. He
was offered a research fellowship and lectureship at Frankfurt University and
later worked for the Historical Institute of Deutsche Bank, and for Gontard &
Metallbank, Frankfurt. Since 2001 he has worked in various functions for the
city of Wiesbaden; since 2006 he has been head of the department coordina-
ting Wiesbaden’s application for World Heritage status.
Erich G. Wieser, (b. 1954), studied surveying at Technische Universität (TH)
Darmstadt, spent his internship in Rheinland-Pfalz and passed his state exam.
He then worked as a research fellow at TH Darmstadt and obtained his Dr. Ing.
with Prof. Gerhard Eichhorn (dissertation: „Systemanalytische Aspekte kom-
munaler Landinformationssysteme”). He is currently head of the department
in charge of geo-information, surveying and land management of the Tief-
bau- und Vermessungsamt Wiesbaden, and holds an honorary professorship
in land management at the TH Darmstadt.
Simone Zagrodnik, (b. 1977) studied tourism management at Cologne Business
School and holds a BA (Honors) in Business and Tourism. She worked as a
product manager for a number of tour operators in Germany and abroad, and
for Wiesbaden Marketing GmbH since 2005. In 2008 she was appointed head
of its department of Tourism Marketing / Tourist Service.
Hans-Jörg Czech, (b. 1966) studied art history, modern German literature and
European ethnology at Münster, Vienna and Bonn. Having obtained his
Dr. phil. in 1999 with Prof. Hans-Joachim Raupp, he worked as a volunteer at
the Staatliche Museen Kassel, participating in the reorganisation and re-
establishment of the Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe. 2000-2007 he worked
at the Deutsches Historisches Museum as assistant manager, exhibition
curator and project supervisor for the Permanent Exhibition at the Berliner
Zeughaus. He has held the position of founding director of the Stadtmuseum
Wiesbaden since October 2007.
Martin Horsten, (b. 1963) studied architecture and art history at Aachen, Colo-
gne, Leiden and Leuven. Having spent his internship in Nordrhein-Westfalen
and passed his state exam, he worked as regional division head for the Bava-
rian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments. Since 2002 he
has held the position of Stadtkonservator of Wiesbaden and head of monu-
ment protection at the Stadtplanungsamt and Bauaufsichtsamt. Deputy
chairman of the Technical Issues working group of the German National
Committee for Monument Protection.
Brigitte Streich, (b. 1954) studied history, Romance philology and auxiliary
historical disciplines at Göttingen, obtaining her Dr. phil. with Prof. Hans
Patze. 1990–1992 she trained as a senior service archivist in Sachsen-Anhalt,
Marburg and Koblenz. She worked as an assessor for the public records office
at Magdeburg from 1992 to 1994, and as head of the municipal archive at
Celle in 1994-2001. Head of the Wiesbaden public records office since
August 2001, she is also a member of the “Bundeskonferenz der Kommunal-
archivare beim Deutschen Städtetag”, chairs the state association of Hessian
archivists, and works on the “Residences” commission of the Göttingen
Academy of Sciences.
Authors 98 | 99
The Kurhaus, Wiesbaden
100 | 101
Publishing information 102
Published by: Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden
Amt für Strategische Steuerung, Stadtforschung und Statistik
Stabsstelle Weltkulturerbe
Wilhelmstraße 32 | 65183 Wiesbaden
Translation: Susanne Stopfel
Layout and design: Wiesbaden Marketing GmbH
Recent photographs: Martin Horsten, Thomas Weichel, Stanislaw Chomicki, Uwe Stotz, Stephan Richter,
Horst Goebel, Gerhard Hirsch, Torsten Krüger, Rainer Hackenberg, Wolfgang Eckhardt, Wiesbaden Marketing GmbH,
Mattiaqua, Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG, Villa Clementine
Historical photographs and engravings: Stadtarchiv Wiesbaden, Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden,
Untere Denkmalschutzbehörde
Maps: Tiefbau- und Vermessungsamt, Stadtarchiv Wiesbaden, Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden
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